The chief executive of Pennsylvania-based Corsa Coal Corp. said Sunday the company is opening a second coal mine since President Trump took office, declaring “the war on coal is over” and attributing the growth to the president’s economic policies.
“I think it’s a direct link,” company CEO George Dethlefsen told Fox News, pointing specifically to Trump’s efforts to deregulate the U.S. economy and a “very strong market” for steel.
“The steel industry is undergoing a real Renaissance,” he said.
Dethlefsen also said the Trump administration’s plans to improve the country’s infrastructure and tax code should further help the U.S. economy.
The first Corsa Coal mine to open since Trump took office in January is roughly 60 miles southeast of Pittsburgh and is expected to generate as many as 100 new jobs.
Renovations on the second mine, shuttered five years ago, will start next month with a projected reopening in early 2018.
Trump has made reversing the decades-long decline in coal mining the central tenet of his environmental policy -- blaming federal regulations aimed at curbing planet-warming carbon emissions for job losses in the industry.
The revival of the industry was one of Trump’s main talking points while on the stump last year and helped him win over working-class voters in Pennsylvania’s coal country.
Fox News' Leland Vittert and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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